


Tournament of Lies (Slam Fight, Bright Light)

by SonoSvegliato



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Apocalypse, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, Damian Wayne-centric, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Jason Todd-centric, MIA Batfamily, Nightmares, jason Todd is a good bro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 09:21:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonoSvegliato/pseuds/SonoSvegliato
Summary: Damian finds himself alone in the midst of an apocalypse.(Or so he thinks.)Title taken from "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M.





	Tournament of Lies (Slam Fight, Bright Light)

Gotham is a place of ghosts where people should be and people where ghosts should be. It is shadows where there should not be shadows, light where there should not be light.

Gotham is a nightmare.

Twisting alleyways and never ending streets, shuddering streetlights and broken traffic lights, empty apartments but laughter that echoes for miles and stays inside Damian’s head long after it's disappeared.

He hates the way the air makes his chest tight. How the smog blocks out all the stars. The sound of the sirens, blaring off brick walls. How blue and red lights make fo better light than the street lamps.

Damian doesn’t know if he hates Gotham, though. He doesn’t think he can: Gotham is his father. They are inseparable entities.

Or so he thought.

Because the Batman has been gone for weeks. Damian doesn’t know for sure, but he knows it’s been a long time. Maybe years? He can’t remember. Time is a blur, and if he tries to remember too much, all he sees is the present. 

And the present is some kind of apocalypse. 

(Without Batman, what else would Gotham be?)

The Manor is silent. Titus’s claws don’t click on the hardwood floors, Alfred the Cat doesn’t nap on windowsills. His father isn’t in his study. Pennyworth is nowhere to be found.

He tried to call Grayson, but no call went through, and when he stole a civilian’s cell phone, it went to voicemail.

Arkham doesn’t even  _ exist  _ anymore. Arkham Island has been blown straight off the maps, and Gotham has been ripped to shreds. Some civilians run: he doesn’t know where they go. Some civilians die: he doesn’t know where they go, either. He sees police sometimes, but never the Commissioner. He’s dead.

He called Catwoman. He called the Justice League. He even tried calling that imbecile  _ Drake,  _ but they’re all gone.

Gotham is a place of ghosts where people should be and people where ghosts should be. It is shadows where there should not be shadows, light where there should not be light.

Gotham is a nightmare, but Gotham is Father, and Damian is his father’s son.

So he protects his father’s city.

**Author's Note:**

> Does anyone else think of Chicken Little when they hear ITEOTWAWKIAIFF
> 
> Cause I do
> 
> (Also ITEOTWAWKIAIFF took almost as long to figure out as it would have been just to spell it all out).
> 
> But seriously Chicken Little -- 2006, man what a time to be alive -- I was terrified of it the aliens haunted my dreams for years YEARS and to this day I still wake up to my garage light.


End file.
